Monday, October 6, 2014

The Unofficial Sequart Author Bootcamp: Comic Theory and History

Over the last few weeks I’ve talked about the basic
protocols when it comes to writing articles, the word economy, the balance of
content, and how to be timely and meet deadlines. Another thing to consider
about writing articles for Sequart Organization is building a working knowledge
of theory on comic books. Our articles can be informative on the surface level,
but also knowing about the minutiae of comic history, the process by which
comics are written, and the critical analysis of structure are just as
important.A book I can
recommend right off the top of my head is Douglas Wolk’s Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What
They Mean. It’s a great overview on the history,
development, and theory of comics featuring appendix overviews of a variety of
famous creators in the comic book community. Another book that I have heard a
lot of good things about is Understanding
Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud. I haven’t read it personally (yeah,
it sounds lame of me to recommend something I haven’t read), but it’s been recommended
to me by enough “important” people that I should pass it along. Because comics are
not universally respected as of yet as “legitimate art,” finding good
commentary on specific comics is very difficult. Sequart Organization however,
has a large book line dedicated to the study of specific works. That’s my
shameless plug, but it’s worth looking into.Boning up on comic
theory starts with a spatial analysis of what comics do: they are snapshots,
moments in time. The measure of time for each panel is determined by the amount
of text. (Keep in mind I’m stealing all this from Douglas Wolk, so I recommend picking
up his book for a deeper, more rewarding investigation.) Writers skilled enough
to recognize this employ it often. Neil Gaiman uses “silence” in comics quite
often to instill a lingering tension in his stories. Without text, there is
nothing to determine the passage of time in a frame. Therefore a textless panel
is an eternity.

Understanding the
dynamics of a writer-artist duo is also a foundational aspect of studying comic
theory. Most of the art comics that inspired the stylized, mature comics that
one might find in Vertigo’s line was the work of Artists that wrote and
developed their own comics. Without being confined to the house style of any
particular publisher, the evolution of certain styles and approaches to comic
making rapidly accelerated. So when we read a comic illustrated by Scott
Hampton or Charles Vess, we have early art comics to thanks for showing the
world that the medium of comics could escape the shackles of DC and Marvel
house style.

Consequently, the
introduction of a writer into the equation of comic book production fostered a
symbiotic relationship between the two creators. Collaborative efforts mean
comics can be produced faster, but this increase in turnover risks sanitation
of style in the final product. Jim Lee is a phenomenal artist but his style has
often been critiqued for its highly stylized depictions. His work is a far cry
from Daniel Clowes’s Ghost World.

I could go on, of
course.

The idea here is try
to look at comics more critically. They have a long rich history, just like any
other counter culture. Books have been written on them. People talk about them.
Etc. I encourage you all to look into comics from angles other than characters
and really try to understand them in their cultural context. I’ve always wanted
to read a Marxist interpretation of Iron Man, but I still haven’t found one.
But the possibilities are nigh limitless. Just think about them beyond the
surface level details. Try to spot things that you haven’t seen before. It’s
these details that will help you understand exactly what’s going on in the
comic world.